Life Of Our Father Justin Archimandrite of ChelijeWho reposed in the Lord Jesus Christ 25 March 1979Written By Reverend Father Daniel Rogich

Troparion, Tone 4As Orthodox sweetness and divine nectar, Venerable Father*
thou dost flow into the hearts of believers as a wealth:*
by thy life and teachings thou didst reveal thyself to be a living book of the Spirit, most wise Justin;*
therefore pray to Christ the Word*
that the Word may dwell in those who honor thee.

Dedication

This page is dedicated to the Abbot Theodosy, and the Brotherhood of
Visoki Decani Monastery. Website URL : http://www.decani.yunet.com

In the Name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit:

Holy love has a way of consuming some. This is what is meant
by one who said "Thou hast ravished our hearts, ravished them" (Song
of Songs 4:9). And it make others bright and overjoyed. In this regard it has been
said "My heart hath hope in Him, and I am helped and my flesh hath flourish
again" (Ps. 27:7). "For when the heart is cheerful, the face beams"
(cf.Prov.15:13), and "a person flooded with the love of God reveals in his body,
as if in a mirror, the splendor of his soul, a glory like of Moses when he came
face to face with God" (cf. Ex. 34:29-35) - St. John Climacus.

OUR HOLY FATHER JUSTIN, Abbot of Chelije Monastery in Valjevo, western
Serbia, was born to pious and God-fearing parents, Prota (Priest) Spyridon
and Protinica (Presbytera) Anastasia Popovich, in Vranje, South Serbia,
on the Feast of Annunciation, March 25, 1894. He was born into a
priestly family, as seven previous generations of the Popoviches (Popovich
in Serbian actually means "family or a son of a priest") were headed by
priests. At baptism, he was given the name Blagoje, after the Feast
of the Annunciation (Blagovest means Annunciation or Good News).
Being raised in a pious Christian atmosphere, young Blagoje learned quite
early of the virtuous life in Christ as dedicated in service to God's holy
Church. As a child, he often visited with his parents the Prohor
Pchinjski Monastery, dedicated to St. Prophor the Miracle worker (see Oct.
19th). He witnessed firsthand the miraculous power of the Lord manifested
through St. Prohor, as his mother Anastasia was healed of a deadly disease
by the Saint's intercessions when Blagoje was still a young boy.

Blagoje was an excellent student in elementary school. His greatest
love was for the Bible, and the four Gospels in particular. He began
serious reading of the Bible at age fourteen, and throughout the rest of
his life he carried the New Testament on his person, reading faithfully
three chapters a day. In 1905 after finishing the fourth grade in
Vranje, following the tradition of the Popovich family, young Blagoje entered
the nine-year program of secular and religious study at the Seminary and
Faculty of St. Sava in Belgrade. In the early twentieth century the
School of St. Sava in Belgrade was renowned throughout the Orthodox world
as a holy place of extreme asceticism as well as of a high quality of scholarship.
Some of the well-known professors, were the rector, Fr. Domentian; Professor
Fr. Dositheus, later a bishop, and Athanasius Popovich, and the great ecclesiastical
composer, Stevan Mokranjac. Yet one professor stood head and shoulders
above the rest: the then Hieromonk Nikolai Velimirovich, Ph. D. (see March
18th). Fr. Nickolai the single most influential person in his life.
From the Venerable Nikolai, Blagoje learned of the virtuous ascetic life
in Christ the Lord, of the doctrinal genius of the great Fathers of the
Church, and of the spiritual and intellectual effort needed to probe the
important philosophical and theological questions of the day. In
the end, both of these two spiritual geniuses possessed a commitment to
Christ the Lord, provided them with a truly Orthodox vision of life, which
in turn made them the two greatest voices of the Serbian Orthodox Church
in modern times. Both Nikolai and Blagoje, later Monk Justin, sought
to "speak the truth in love" to a passing world.

The sought the answers to the world's most pressing problems in the
teachings of the Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church, and especially
in the experiences found in the Lives of the Saints. The saints were
for them "living Bibles" "incarnate dogmas", and the true source
of Orthodox theology, experiential knowledge of God and existential pedagogical
truth valid for all times.

In 1914, at age twenty, Blagoje finished the nine-year program of St.
Sava's in Belgrade. At this time he had only one desire in mind:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that
I may behold the delight of the Lord, and that I may visit His holy
temple {Ps. 26:4}. With this hunger and thirst for righteousness
driving him, Blagoje wanted to radically devote his life to Christ
in the monastic vocation. However, due to the beginning of World
War I in 1914, and the declining health of his parents, Blagoje decided
to postpone his entrance into the monastic ranks.

During the early part of World War I, autumn of 1914, Blagoje served
as a student nurse primarily in South Serbia-Skadar, Nish, Kosovo, etc.
Unfortunately, while in this capacity, he contracted typhus during the
winter of 1914 and had to spend over a month in a hospital in Nish.
On January 8, 1915, he resumed his duties. It suites to say that
Blagoje and the rest of the aids and nurses, as well as all of the freedom-loving
Serbian Christians in South Serbia, suffered bitterly from the effects
of war.

On the eve of the Feast of St. Nicholas, his Ksna Slava
(family patron saint), 1915, Blagoje returned to Skadar in order to visit
Metropolitan Demetrius, who later became the first Patriarch after the
patriarchal throne was renewed in 1920. Blagoje received the monastic
tonsure in the church in Skadar, taking the name Justin, after the great
Christian philosopher and martyr for Christ, St. Justin the Philosopher
(t. 166). This name was truly a gift and sign from Heaven, for it
was as a philosopher and seeker of Christian truth that the humble Monk
Justin would later receive glory from God.

Shortly after becoming a monk, Justin, along with several other students
who received the Metropolitan's blessing, traveled to Petrograd, Russia,
to begin a year's study in the Orthodox Seminary there. It was here
the young Monk Justin first dedicated himself more fully to Orthodoxy and
the monastic way. He learned of the great ascetics of Russia: Anthony
and Theodosius of the Caves in Kiev, Seraphim of Sarov, Sergius of Radonezh,
John of Kronstadt, and others. Justin fell in love with Russian spirituality
and piety, especially that exhibited by the common folk of the countryside.

After his year's study and sojourn in Russia, Justin entered, by the
prompting of his spiritual father Nikolai, the Theological School in Oxford,
England. He spent seven semesters at Oxford-November 1916 to May
1919 yet he did not receive a diploma since his doctoral dissertation entitled,
"The Philosophy and Religion of Dostoevsky," was not accepted. As
a result, Justin returned to Belgrade after the war and became a teacher
in the seminary at Karlovac, Srem. At Sremski Kalovac, Justin renewed
the ancient study of the Lives of the Saints as being a proper theological
focus and most important course of study. It was at this time that
he received the calling and vision from God to translate into modern Serbian
the entire Lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church, a feast which to
this day is truly astounding. In September of 1919, Justin entered
the Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Athens, Greece. He spent
two years there to finish his doctoral course work. Just as in Russia,
Monk Justin traveled through out the countryside of Greece, especially
benefiting spiritually from the Greek Orthodox heritage commonly known
as the Byzantine legacy. In 1920, venerable Justin was ordained deacon
and began to experience another side of the Church's liturgical life: leadership
of the worship services. At his liturgical and ascetical life increased,
Justin matured spiritually and became known throughout all of Greece as
a most pious ascetic. At this time, due to his unceasing prayer to
the Most sweet Jesus, Justin was granted by the grace of the Holy Spirit
the gift of umilenije coupled with tears.

In May 1921, Deacon Justin returned to Sremski Karlovac and resumed
this teaching duties at the Seminary. He learned on the New Testament,
Dogmatics, Patristics, and the Lives of the Saints. Prior to each
lesson the Scriptures he opened with this short prayer: "O Most Sweet
Lord, by the power of Thy Holy Gospel and through Thy Apostles, teach me
and announce through me what I am to say."

One year later, on the Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist, 1922,
Venerable Justin was ordained priest by His Holiness Patriarch Dimitrije.
Throughout the ordination service, Justin was in tears, crying as a newborn
babe in the Lord. His humility attracted many, as his disciples grew
rapidly in number. Not only students, but also many lay people came
to him for confession, counsel, and spiritual healing. His most beloved
disciples were those pious men and women of the Bogomo jack Pokret (Serbian
Prayer Movement) originally formed and led by the newly consecrated Bishop
Nikolai. The great Bishop Nikolai as the Great Apostle of the twentieth
century, as the "New Chrysostom" of all times. These two were as
Anthony and Athanasius, and Basil and Gregory of old- "two bodies, yet
one mind" -as their love for our Lord Jesus Christ produced much spiritual
fruit in the lives of many zealots. Everyone especially enjoyed singing
the spiritual songs written by Bishop Nikolai. These ones, written
in the vernacular language of the people, were not only quite spiritual
and edifying, but also were very didactic and doctrinal in nature.
And it was this "praising the Lord in the people's language" which inspired
Justin to translate into modern Serbian, from the original Greek text,
the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Following the scriptural
and the liturgical tradition of the Church given to the Slavs by the great
evangelical missionaries, Cyril and Methodius and their disciples, that
is, the tradition of hearing the Word of God and praying in the mother
tongue of the people {I Cor. 14:19}, both Justin and Nikolai were able
by the energy of the Holy Spirit to edify, enlighten, and confirm in Orthodoxy
the pious faithful in their own tongue.

The zealous Fr. Justin was also close contact at this time with two
great Russian Orthodox pastors: Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, who
taught at the Seminary in Sremski Karlova, the exiled Russian Bishop John
Maximovitch. Holy Father John, a man of extreme asceticism,
was truly a miracle-worker, and his coming later to America-where he reposed
in the Lord in San Francisco-became a blessing and visitation from the
Lord for those God-seekers there.

In 1923, Fr. Justin became the editor of the Orthodox journal Christian
Life; and in this journal appeared his first doctoral dissertation,
"The Philosophy and Religion of Dostoevsky," for which he was persecuted
at Oxford. Three years later, in 1926, his second doctoral dissertation,
"The Problem of Person and Knowledge in St. Macarius of Egypt," was published
in Greek in Athens. Fr. Justin was now on his way to establishing
himself as a modern Father of the Church. For his course on the Lives
of the Saints, Justin began to translate into Serbian the Lives of the
Saints from the Greek, Syriac and Slavonic sources, as well as numerous
minor works of the Fathers-homilies of John Chrysostom, Macarius, and Isaac
the Syrian. He also wrote an exquisite book, The Theory of Knowledge
According to St. Isaac. Justin's blossoming literary genius amazed
everyone.

In 1931, after a stint as Professor in the Theological Academy in Prizren,
the brilliant Fr. Justin was requested by the Holy Synod in Belgrade to
assist Bishop Joseph (Cvijovich) of Bitola in reorganizing the Church of
the Carpatho-Russians in Czechoslovakia. This area had been besieged
by those espousing Uniatism. Justin, an established defender of the
faith, was a great aid to the reorganization of the Orthodox Church of
Czechoslovakia. This experience made him realize a tremendous need
of the Serbs: to have in their mother tongue an exact and complete exposition
of the Orthodox faith. As a result, he began writing, after his return
to Bitola in 1932, his monumental work, The Dogmas of the Orthodox Church,
in three volumes. Volume one, published in late 1932, dealt with
the sources and method of theology, the nature of God and the teaching
on the Holy Trinity, creation, and divine providence. This volume
was so well received that Dr. Justin was chosen, in 1934, as Professor
of Dogmatics at the Theological Faculty of St. Sava in Belgrade.
One year later, this hard-working writer completed the second volume, entitled,
The God Man and His Work: Christology and Soteriology. There
is so doubt that these two volumes and the third and final volume, Ecclesiology:
Teaching on the Church, published later in 1970 are the most complete
with his most ascetical vision of life, produced for all Christians a magnificent
analysis of the ancient faith of the Church.

In 1938, Fr. Justin, along with a number of noted intellectuals of Belgrade,
founded the Serbian Philosophical Society. Holy Father Justin began
at this time to probe the philosophical and world issues of his day.
His penetrating mind was fully displayed in two books: The Foundations
of Theology (1939) and Dostoevsky on Europe and Slavism (1940).
Both of these works dealt with the nature and method of theology, and the
spirit and vision of western civilization. Fr. Justin was never fearful
of telling the truth concerning the fallen state of humankind and, particularly,
the follies of Western Eupropean religious and secular life.

Father Justin remained in the capacity of Professor Dogmatics in Belgrade
until the end of World War II. Within the perspective of the newly
established communist and atheistic regime, the likes of a zealous Christian
such as Father Justin, who was now beginning to convert the intellectuals
to faith in Jesus Christ, had no place. He, alone with several other
teachers, was ousted from the university system in Belgrade and told never
to return. Thus ended the university teaching career in Belgrade
of the great Rev. Dr. Justin Popovich.

For two years after his exile from Belgrade, the ascetic Justin lived
in several monasteries in Serbia-Kalenich, Ovchar, Sukovo, and Ravanitsa-and
on May 14, 1948, he entered Chelije Monastery near the village of Lelich,
only a few miles from the major town of Valjevo, Western Serbia.
Father Justin remained in Chelije Monastery until his repose in the Lord
on March 25, 1979. He became Archimandrite there and was the spiritual
head of the Monastery. Under his guidance, Chelije Monastery became
a convent. A school of iconography, renewing the Serbo-Byzantine
style, was also begun there, and a new chapel dedicated to St. John Chrysostom
as well as residential quarters were constructed in 1970. Many pious
people from all parts of Yugoslavia, Greece, the Balkans, and literally
all parts of the world came to hear him preach and teach the correct faith
and life in Christ by the energy of the Holy Spirit. Without a doubt,
from the end of World War I until his reposed in the Lord, Archimandrite
Justin was the pillar of Orthodoxy in his homeland.

During the time of confinement in Chelije Monastery, he accomplished
an amazing literary feat: he translated and compiled from various sources
twelve volumes (one per month) of the Lives of the Saints. Father
Justin communed of the Holy Gifts daily, for the Eucharist, the Precious
Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, was his "daily bread" and the
true source of his entire life, work, teaching, and existence. His
words, deed and thoughts exuded a lifestyle reminiscent of the ancient
Fathers of the Church. Another Father of the Church walked this earth
in the person of St. Justin.

In addition to the Lives of the Saints, the following is an incomplete
list of the writings he produced in Chelije, some of which are still unpublished,
plays a highly analytical and perceptive mind and heart. He actually
created a new theological and philosophical language necessary to reach
the heart of the modern human being. And his writings and teachings
reflect a genuine and total commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, a commitment
characterized by extreme asceticism, as well as by the contemplative vision
of the Divine Light of God the Holy Trinity. He was "living dogma"
and a "flute of the Spirit" reflecting the divine love of God the Holy
Trinity. Theology was life to St. Justin.

St. Justin fell asleep in the Lord on March 25, 1979, on his birthday,
the Feast of the Annunciation. He was 85 years of age. After
his most honorable burial which was attended by hundreds of pious believers
who came from many parts of the world, he was laid to rest facing east
behind the main church of Chelije Monastery. To this day eulogies
praising his virtue and love of Christ continue to be heard from all parts
of the Orthodox world. Also, miracles have occurred at his grave
site, such as headings, flashes of brilliant and divine light from his
tomb, as well as many conversions of unbelievers who have either read his
writings or have been personally visited by Almighty God through the prayers
of St. Justin.

Truly St. Justin's legacy is a great one. Many disciples are now
extolling his name and imitating his life by drinking from the inexhaustible
riches of grace and truth which he revealed to us. Add another modern
Orthodox Christian saint to the Church calendar!

"O Holy Father Justin, thy sweetness of life refreshes our souls.
Thy love for truth and desire to live with all the saints is a reminder
to us of our own calling from God to pursue virtue, that we, most unenlightened
and miserable sinners, may open our hearts to the knowledge of Truth Incarnate,
the Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom belongs glory, honor and worship, together
with His Unoriginate Father, and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto
the ages of ages. Amen.

I would like to humbly thank the servant of our Lord Dejan Janjic, who
kindly shared with me this spiritually rewarding text on the "Life Of Our
Father Justin Archimandrite of Chelije".